In this era of whole genome sequencing, reliable genome annotations (identification of functional regions) are the cornerstones for many subsequent analyses. Not only is careful annotation important for studying the gene and gene family content of a genome and its host, but also for wide-scale transcriptome and proteome analyses attempting to describe a certain biological process or to get a global picture of a cell's behavior. Although the number of sequenced genomes is increasing thanks to the application of new technologies, genome-wide analyses will critically depend on the quality of the genome annotations. However, the annotation process is more complicated in the plant field than in the animal field because of the limited funding that leads to much fewer experimental data and less annotation expertise. This situation calls for highly automated annotation platforms that can make the best use of all available data, experimental or not. We discuss how the gene prediction (the process of predicting protein gene structures in genomic sequences) research field increasingly shifts from methods that typically exploited one or two types of data to more integrative approaches that simultaneously deal with various experimental, statistical, or other in silico evidence. We illustrate the importance of integrative approaches for producing high-quality automatic annotations of genomes of plants and algae as well as of fungi that live in close association with plants using the platform EuGène as an example.

Current Bioinformatics aims to publish all the latest and outstanding developments in bioinformatics. Each issue contains a series of timely, in-depth reviews written by leaders in the field, covering a wide range of the integration of biology with computer and information science.

The journal focuses on reviews on advances in computational molecular/structural biology, encompassing areas such as computing in biomedicine and genomics, computational proteomics and systems biology, and metabolic pathway engineering. Developments in these fields have direct implications on key issues related to health care, medicine, genetic disorders, development of agricultural products, renewable energy, environmental protection, etc.

Current Bioinformatics is an essential journal for all academic and industrial researchers who want expert knowledge on all major advances in bioinformatics.